Darwin Behind the Scenes

The Darwin Behind the Scenes exhibition offers an opportunity to delve into the hidden world of Charles Darwin’s private correspondence and to discover what Darwin and his correspondents’ letters can tell us about the man behind the beard: Where did his ideas came from? Who and what influenced his work? How did Darwin’s image in the press compare with the man known to his family, friends and colleagues?

Loosely speaking, the exhibition focuses on correspondence exchanged in relation to the writing and publication of two of Darwin’s major works; The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871) and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872).